Boris Johnson will today address the UK to announce details of the Government’s plans to bring England out of lockdown, using their ‘roadmap’ full of key dates. The PM will speak from 10 Downing Street at 7pm tonight, just a few hours after a speech in the House of Commons at 3.30pm in which he will reveal the information the nation has been waiting on for months.
The cabinet, along with a number of expert advisors, has made decisions around schools’ reopening dates, social distancing guidelines and whether or not they’ll be allowing non-essential shops to open their doors in the next few weeks.
As well as this, they’re expected to cover whether the ‘rule of six’ or any curfews will still be in place, target reopening dates for pubs, nightclubs, theme parks, gyms and much more.
However, the lifting of restrictions is dependent on a number of factors, one of which being the national vaccine rollout.
If it continues to progress at the same incredible pace and is continuously proven to have an impact on transmission, this will be great news for the UK.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson speech live stream: How to watch PM’s lockdown roadmap
Other factors which will hopefully ensure key dates aren’t impacted include evidence that the coronavirus jabs are effective in reducing hospitalisation and deaths, infection rates are continuing to drop, and that the government’s assessments of the risks aren’t changed by the emergence of new variants.
A number of sources have reported the expected key dates, which are as follows:
March 8
March 8 is only two weeks away and is expected to be the first date which we’ll see changes in relation to lockdown.
It’s believed that on this date, all schools for all ages are set to reopen in England, with children’s activity groups also being able to resume.
It’s also thought that our much loved pubs, bars, restaurants and so on could open around this time, but only for outdoor dining and drinking.
The exact date has not been released, but it is expected that this will be dependent on the Government’s risk assessments.
Self-catering holiday facilities are also expected to reopen around the same time.
May
It’s reported that indoor dining will be permitted again around mid-May, with limits on group size, social distancing and so on, currently unknown.
This could also see short ‘stay-cations’ across the UK being permitted.
June
Matt Hancock has stated he is optimistic about summer holidays for 2021, so it’s looking positive that from June onwards, restrictions will be lifted for the tourism sector.
Travel to other countries will be entirely reliant on their own restrictions, after all, Brits were banned from entering a number of countries during the last lockdown!
It’s also hoped by this point, those living in England will be able to mix with other households indoors.
